Originally slated for a holiday 2020 release, the Disney animated adventure “Raya and the Last Dragon” can be seen in select theaters today and streamed on Disney+.
Kelly Marie Tran voices the title character at the center of this computer-generated fable about dragons, monsters and magic. James Newton Howard composed the score.
Another highly touted film derailed by COVID, “Coming 2 America” was originally scheduled for a summer 2020 release by Paramount, pushed back to winter and then sold to Amazon for today’s streaming premiere. You’d think a big Paramount picture would be part of yesterday’s launch of the Paramount+ streaming platform.
If you can explain why it’s on Amazon Prime instead, you know more about the entertainment business than me.
Not many sequels arrive more than 30 years after the original. Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall reprise their roles as African royalty. The cast includes Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, KiKi Layne, Shari Headley, Teyana Taylor, Wesley Snipes and James Earl Jones.
Like a lot of larger-than-life comics, Eddie Murphy enjoyed so much early success that audiences got tired of his face. Rather than disappear, he buried himself in prosthetics for his “Nutty Professor” movies and hid behind animated characters in the “Shrek” franchise. Fellow “SNL” star Mike Myers followed a similar trajectory.
Murphy received positive reviews for his 2019 biopic, “Dolemite Is My Name.” Released on Netflix, it offered an affectionate profile of Rudy Ray Moore, a foul-mouthed comic who found unlikely success with a string of grade-Z blacksploitation efforts. Given the success of that comeback, it’s questionable if audiences will embrace Murphy’s return to a character from the 1980s.
Little-known before the original “America,” Arsenio Hall is still most associated with his late-night talk show that ran from 1989 to 1994. With the possible exception of “The Dick Cavett Show,” Hall’s syndicated chat fest was the first forum to challenge Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” in its ability to spark the national conversation. Bigger stars, including Joey Bishop, Chevy Chase and Joan Rivers, had tried, but “Arsenio” became a household word and earned Carson’s admiration. In 2019, Netflix streamed Hall’s stand-up special “Smart & Classy.”
— Also streaming today, the 2021 sci-fi thriller “Boss Level,” starring Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts and Michelle Yeoh, debuts on Hulu.
— Netflix streams the 2021 French-language thriller “Sentinelle.”
— Fans of familiar classics are in luck as TCM unspools three distinctive Alfred Hitchcock thrillers: “The 39 Steps” (8 p.m., TV-G); “Psycho” (9:45 p.m., TV-PG) and “North by Northwest” (11:45 p.m., TV-PG). BBC America keeps things shaken and stirred with three Bond classics starring Sean Connery: “Thunderball” (3 p.m., TV-PG); “From Russia With Love” (6 p.m., TV-PG) and “Goldfinger” (8:30 p.m., TV-14).
— Viewers impressed by “Nomadland,” now streaming on Hulu, might be receptive to the 2018 drama “Leave No Trace,” streaming on Amazon Prime. Both are quiet and contemplative movies about communities of American outcasts.
Ben Foster stars as a traumatized war veteran and widower who escapes to the Oregon woods with his teenage daughter, portrayed by Thomasin McKenzie. Her performance has been compared to Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone,” another film directed by Debra Granik. “Leave” is one of the few movies to score 100% on the Rotten Tomatoes site.
Both are gorgeous films to behold. “Nomadland” for its majestic austerity; “Leave” for its nearly intoxicating evocation of the great forests of the Northwest.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Evil Twins, Inc. on “The Blacklist” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— “WWE Friday Night SmackDown” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
— Erin’s new boss proves formidable on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
— “Wynonna Earp” (10 p.m., Syfy, TV-MA) continues its fourth and final season.
CULT CHOICE
Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon and Denise Richards star in the 1998 thriller “Wild Things” (9 p.m., Starz Encore).
SERIES NOTES
A hacker exposes Mac’s deepest secrets on “MacGyver” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … A new take on healthy eating on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … Two episodes of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (8 p.m. CW, r, TV-PG).
An Army Ranger vanishes on “Magnum P.I.” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC, r) … “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (9:30 p.m., CW, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Amanda Seyfried, Omar Sy and Lil Durk featuring 6Lack on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Colin Jost, Harvey Guillen and Raghav Mehrotra visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Adam Devine and BLACKPINK appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
